Thursday, July 31, 2008

For There's No Blue Monday in Your Sunday Clothes

Hello, everyone! “Gan Nelson” here. I have successfully disposed of the girl known as Megan Jensen and taken her place in her home, her job, her ward, and her bed! Not only that, my roommate “Ishtar Morrisse” has done the same to Megan’s old roommate, Esther. Let the rule of the UN-lucky 7s begin! All shall love us and despair!

-scuffle, shoving, fighting, drawing of light-sabers, dropkicking of “Gan” to another galaxy-

Okay, everyone. It’s me again, Megan. Phew! That took a lot out of me! I’m sure Esther had no trouble getting rid of the dreaded “Ishtar Morrisse”, but “Gan Nelson” put up quite a fight. To dispel a popular theory, the name “Gan” did not come from an attempt of mine to copy my mother’s granny-nickname, which is “Ganny”. It came from an attempt of some guys in the ward to suggest possible nicknames for me, and Neal decided to use the second syllable of my name, rather than the first syllable, which has never happened to me before in my life. I was astonished at the originality, but wasn’t so much a fan of the name, however much it reminded me of that ever-popular classic, The Journey of Natty Gann. However, the name still occasionally pops up randomly, even from my beloved roommate. So now I can’t quite get rid of the name, but heaven knows, I needed to get rid of that phantom spirit that accompanied it and has been responsible for all unexplained and strange occurrences in the Lucky 7s home.

But all hail the conquering hero! (that’s me) Two nights ago, I went running (again) and accomplished a first. Now, this may come across as kind of pathetic to others, but I have never run a mile straight in my life. I’ve run a mile in one outing, yes—well over a mile, even—but never have I run a mile without stopping after about half a mile and walking a bit, then running another bit, then walking a bit, etc. But Tuesday night, I ran a mile without stopping! Yay! Endurance in running has never been my strong suit, so I was kind of proud of myself when I did it. So everyone rejoice (with the pathetic girl who stinks at running)!

Yet another movie recommendation coming your way. Wall-E. It was very cute, and kind of makes you think, which you wouldn’t really expect from a Disney/Pixar flick, but very good. It was almost worth going to it just to see the short film played before it, which was called Presto. Kelly, Whitney, Steve, and I couldn’t stop laughing; it was so hysterical. Wall-E certainly made me laugh out loud quite a bit, and it had me tapping my toes with how many times “Sunday Clothes” from “Hello, Dolly” was played. When the movie opened and the music started with “Out there, there’s a world outside of Yonkers . . .”, I was suddenly so excited and I started semi-singing along to the words, causing Steve to be very baffled because he thought that I hadn’t seen Wall-E yet (to which Whitney whispered that the song was from something else). And fortunately, my friends thought it was endearing rather than annoying that I “sang” along to the song during that opening minute.

I got to spend a lot of Saturday with my friend Bethany, and we did a bunch of girly things, like get our hair cut (ironic, since I was with her the last time I got my hair cut), chat, eat junk food, and go shoe shopping. Girly things are fun to do every once in a while. Esther and I decided to watch Anne of Green Gables last night, so Sarah (a friend from work who also loves Anne) and Becky came over and we watched a bit of it. Awesome times. I also played games with both Marys, Marianne, and Andrea last night for a bit, so it seems I’m doing pretty well with the gal pals. Yay!

Quote for the Day: “Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four.” –Katharine Hepburn

With no cutesy or clever sign-off,
Me (megan, not gan).

Friday, July 18, 2008

-Theme Music- Batman!!!

Holy amazing movie, Batman! Really, anybody who actually reads this blog. SEE the new Batman movie! It will completely astound you. I have to say that my heart was in throat for a good two-thirds of the movie; that’s how intense it was. I most definitely do not regret going to see it at midnight with my girls, because it was absolutely incredible. I came away from it very satisfied (which is a total understatement for how all of us felt about it). It was hilarious walking out of the movie theater at 2:45 last night and seeing all the other movie-goers, just looking amazed and out of breath. We were among them. It was great. (and by the way, I was not disappointed by Heath Ledger’s performance, like I was afraid I might be with all the hype about it. It really was eye-popping. Totally lost the actor and saw the Joker.)

So, needless to say, this weekend will probably be devoted to catching up on the sleep I did not get last night. We got home at three, and I was tired, but I was also really wired from the excitement of the movie, so I probably didn’t fall asleep until about 4. That’s not a good night’s rest. That’s a nap. But that’s okay with me.

Life continues pretty much in the same vein as ever. Just trying to keep myself busy. I’ve been practicing the piano again, trying to get back into the groove and feel like I’m actually good at it once more. We’ll see how that goes. Last week was pretty full, which made me happy. I want to make sure I’m keeping busy. No problem doing so on weekdays, but weekends come along and it’s a completely different story, which makes me think the world must be upside-down, because that just doesn’t seem to sound right. Let’s just hope that occasionally plans will work out so I’m not just being bored. I had some things I was doing over the weekend, so I wasn’t being totally lazy or anything, but a couple of plans fell through, so I ended up being less busy than I wanted to be. Oh, well. That happens. That’s life! Isn’t it great?

So here’s to life, everyone. Live it up. Work hard. Play hard. And, don’t be afraid to fall in love. It’s awesome. Not that I’m in love. If I were, you can bet I would write about that before I ever mentioned Batman. But loving people is great. Sure, you make yourself vulnerable by doing so, but it’s really worth the risk. Even people who have loved and lost will probably agree with me. At least, I think they would.

However, this week’s quote comes from a fictional character whom I have always loved because he made me laugh as a kid (haha, ironic—he SANG “Make ‘em laugh”), and this was one of my favorite exchanges of his: “Talking pictures, that means I'm out of a job. At last I can start suffering and write that symphony.” -Cosmo Brown “You're not out of job, we're putting you in as head of our new music department.” –R.F. Simpson “Oh, thanks, R.F.! At last I can stop suffering and write that symphony.” –Cosmo (“Singin’ in the Rain”—See it, love Cosmo Brown. That’s all I ask.)

With affection and alliteration, Gan.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Fifty Nifty United States

Now comes the time of year that is a struggle for me: the time of year that I have to get rid of songs that have been stuck in my head for about two weeks. And you know what they are. Patriotic anthems such as “God Bless America” and “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”. Not that there is anything wrong with those songs. Definitely not! But now that the Fourth of July has passed, it is time I got some regular songs stuck in my head, like “Billie Jean” or “Once There Was a Snowman”. (wait . . . ) So in that round-about way, I have brought up a topic about which I can blog—my Fourth of July weekend.

It was a very good and successful weekend, I’d say. If there’s one thing Provo, Utah, knows how to do, it’s how to celebrate the Fourth of July. I would be hard-pressed to find a more patriotic city. (any challenges to that? Anyone?) On Sunday, Esther, Becky, and I went to a patriotic service where the keynote speaker was Glenn Beck, who was treated like a star the instant he stepped into the Marriott Center. You can have your own opinions about Glenn Beck, but I sure enjoyed what he had to say that night. I felt very patriotic, which I think was the point. The rest of the week went by pretty normally, and then Thursday and Friday afternoons, I took to the main streets of Provo with friends to cruise the market that they set up for the Freedom Festival. It reminded me of Saturday Market in Portland, only MUCH hotter and more crowded, since this kind of thing is such a novelty here. But there were some cool booths to explore, and a lot of jewelry set at prices I wouldn’t think of paying until I’m a little bit richer. Esther and I explored it together on Thursday, then Bethany, Becky, and Whitney, and I met up on Friday for some more jostling and fun. Bethany and I were in kind of silly moods (which happens a lot when I’m with her; she rocks), so we got our faces painted, which made us both happy. I got comments the rest of the day about how “festive” I looked!

Friday morning, I went to the parade that goes down University Avenue and up Center Street. My grandparents were in town, so I got to see them as well as other family members (mostly second cousins that I’ve never met). That evening, I went to a barbeque at the “Leisure Lounge”, which is the nickname for the house of some guys in my ward. There were chairs, a couch, and Mary’s Love Sack set up in the front yard, and it was a good crowd of people that showed up to partake of some expertly cooked meat (as well as some awesome desserts) throughout the evening. I was especially proud when Mary and I managed to begin an intense debate among all the people there about the best Disney princesses and princes. It was kind of our own private conversation until we asked David his opinion, and then it just kind of blew up from there. Amazing, what people will get passionate about. Disney princesses. Luke actually gave me quite the impassioned speech about barbeque-flavored chips as Mary and I took over a bag of cheddar/sour cream-flavored chips. Mike was quite vocal about his love for Mountain Dew, and Neal had no problem letting people know his negative feelings toward Coke. Anyway, people kind of came and went as they pleased, but there were still about ten or so of us who drove up 3rd south to find a place to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks once it was around that time. They were a little far away, but I didn’t mind that much. When we got back to the house, Neal and Mike started “Independence Day” (appropriate) on a projector, and I relinquished my spot on the Love Sack, which I had pretty much commandeered most of the night. We didn’t start the movie until late because of all the traffic driving by, so it was around two when it ended. Half the people on the lawn were asleep, and I was pretty close to fading, myself. Fortunately, I was able to stumble the ENTIRE block back to my house, where I fell asleep on the couch at 2:30 and didn’t get up until close to noon the next day. How lazy. But a good Fourth of July, nonetheless.

The rest of the weekend went pretty well, too. Esther, Becky, Whitney, and I went out to dinner on Saturday night to another Thai restaurant, and, while it’s still no Thai Ruby, it was quite good, and we didn’t stop ourselves from getting a second order of Masman, even after we’d pretty much gorged ourselves on our original orders. Oink, oink on us! After that scrumptious feast, I went to a movie with Mary, Andrea, and Julie. Mary and Andrea are quickly becoming some of my favorite people in the ward, and I’m glad I’m finally making friends. It’s always nice to have them. I fully intend on keeping my friends that I already have, but it’s good to have more. Good friends. Great family. Food. A bed. Who could ask for anything more? (well, I could, but I think people are sick of me talking about wanting to bring a boyfriend into the mix.)

I dedicate this quote of the day to Sylvia, who has been set up on more blind dates in the last six months than everybody else I know has been set up on blind dates in their lifetimes COMBINED: “I’ve been on so many blind dates, I should get a free dog.” –Whitney M. Young

With affection and alliteration, Me.